A MAN sparked a full scale alert in Oldbury after taking what he thought was a landmine to a friend's house in a carrier bag.

A MAN sparked a full scale alert in Oldbury after taking what he thought was a landmine to a friend's house in a carrier bag.

Houses in Titford Road were evacuated and Langley Primary School cleared of children after Niveux Zajaz's friend, Joanne Prescott, called the police.

Officers cordoned off the road and called in explosives experts, only for them to find the wired object the couple had left on Joanne's front garden was no more than a harmless machinery device. The police gave the all-clear just minutes later.

The drama unfolded just before 4pm yesterday after 51-year-old Niveux opted to move the device rather than leave it on nearby former factory land where he had originally found it last week.

He said: "I do some daft things at times. I was going to take it to the police station at first but changed my mind.

"I thought it would have been more irresponsible to have left it where it was because had it been a bomb and someone had died I would have had it on my conscience.

"Joanne was excited at first but became frightened and phoned the police after realising the full potential of what I had found.

"I am just glad the device was not what I thought it was, but if I found something similar I would do the same again. It's only people I care about."

Joanne, aged 45, said: "I did not think it was a bomb. I was just going to inspect it. I thought if I got some dirt off it and cleaned it up I might know what it was.

"When we lifted it up there were all wires underneath."

A West Midlands Police spokeswoman said: "We were called to a report of a landmine being found.

"The immediate area was evacuated and our explosives team was sent out, but it turned out to be a machinery device."